A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized processor that performs graphics renderings and mathematical computations needed for the renderings. The increasing spatial and temporal resolution of data obtained in fields like medical imaging generates computational bottleneck. Such large amounts of data need to be processed and analyzed efficiently. While using clusters or super-computers that provide parallel processing may address some of the needs, they may involve high cost and data center to house the physical size of such clusters.
In the world of medical imaging as an example, processing needs are co-located with the imaging devices. This may be partly due to privacy and data integrity concerns, for instance, where sensitive patient data is not usually sent over networks. Bandwidth restrictions of the networks also preclude transmitting a large dataset over networks.